Wildlife Promise » Gulf coast restorationhttp://blog.nwf.org
The National Wildlife Federation's blogTue, 03 Mar 2015 21:35:34 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.2Weekly News Roundup: Recommendations for Gulf Restoration and more!http://blog.nwf.org/2014/12/weekly-news-roundup-recommendations-for-gulf-restoration-and-more/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/12/weekly-news-roundup-recommendations-for-gulf-restoration-and-more/#commentsFri, 12 Dec 2014 15:54:14 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=102579Read more >]]>On Tuesday, the National Wildlife Federation released a report describing the restoration efforts needed to benefit wildlife, water quality and ecosystems across the Gulf. Restoring the Gulf of Mexico for People and Wildlife: Recommended Projects and Priorities goes into great detail describing 47 projects that would lead the Gulf of Mexico in the right steps for restoration.

What’s happening at the National Wildlife Federation this week?

Sportsmen’s, wildlife groups welcome protections for key public lands

December 11 – Congress has passed a bill that includes protections for about a million acres of some of our country’s most stunning landscapes that are important for fish, wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation. The public lands set aside in the National Defense Authorization Act include areas the National Wildlife Federation and its affiliates have been working for years to conserve.

“It’s the holiday season and Congress has given Americans an early gift – protection for roughly a million acres of watersheds, fish and wildlife habitat and prized recreation areas on public lands. Many of the National Wildlife Federation’s state affiliates have been working for years to conserve these spectacular landscapes, including Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front, Colorado’s Hermosa Creek watershed and New Mexico’s Valles Caldera and Columbine-Hondo wilderness.”

NWF: Let’s keep on track to conserve sage grouse, Western way of life

December 10 – Sportsmen and wildlife enthusiasts expressed disappointment that a federal appropriations bill includes an attempt to delay a decision on whether the greater sage-grouse should be listed, but remained hopeful that work will continue to conserve the bird and maintain the traditional uses of our Western public lands.

A Vision for Comprehensive Gulf Restoration

December 9 – National Wildlife Federation released a report describing 47 projects that would improve the health of the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of the 2010 oil disaster.

NWF in the News:

“It is a matter of physics and geology,” said David Muth, director of the Gulf Restoration Program for the National Wildlife Federation. The current plan, he said, “merely proposes not wasting large sums of precious restoration dollars in a place with no future.”

“In a year where we’ve had the drinking water supplies of three major cities shut down due to contamination — two of them where nutrient pollution from agriculture was a significant contributing factor — to be addressing these major, important clean water policies through a last-minute appropriations rider just seems to be very misguided,” said Jan Goldman-Carter, senior manager for wetlands and water resources at the National Wildlife Federation.

“We already have a massive land loss crisis in Louisiana, so time is not on our side,” said David Muth, Gulf Program director with the National Wildlife Federation, during a Tuesday teleconference. “We need to move forward and move forward quickly.”

Conservation efforts are helping restore osprey, shad, and horseshoe crabs, but more must be done to help sturgeon, oysters, and mussels, and we must continue to reduce industrial impacts on fisheries.

“This project has been such a wonderful collaboration of so many dedicated people,” NWF Southern California Director Beth Pratt told the Malibu Surfside News. “The outpouring of support for the #SaveLACougars campaign, both in the local community and world-wide, has been tremendous — our cats even made the front page of the ‘Wall Street Journal’ and the BBC.”

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/12/weekly-news-roundup-recommendations-for-gulf-restoration-and-more/feed/0A $100M Step Toward Restoring the Gulfhttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/11/a-100m-step-toward-restoring-the-gulf/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/11/a-100m-step-toward-restoring-the-gulf/#commentsMon, 24 Nov 2014 16:29:48 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=102048Read more >]]>The National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) announced a second round of Gulf restoration projects, totaling $99.2 million. A total of 25 projects across the Gulf will seek to restore and increase the resilience of the Gulf’s natural resources. Over the next four years, NFWF will allocate more than $2 billion in additional funds, bringing the total to $2.5 billion to projects benefiting habitats of the Gulf Coast that were impacted by the spill.

“In order to succeed, NFWF must bring together state resource agencies, federal agencies, and other public and private partners, all working in harmony to fund the best projects that will do the most good for the Gulf of Mexico and the communities that depend on it each and every day”, said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF. “The projects we announce today demonstrate the value of our efforts to work in a collaborative fashion to select projects that will provide significant benefits to wildlife and people for many years to come.”

Estuaries – Special Places for Wildlife

The projects announced this week recognize the importance of restoring estuaries—the places where fresh water from river water mixes with the saltier waters of the Gulf. Estuaries are where almost all of the fish and shellfish we harvest for sport or seafood from the Gulf are born, live or mature, but the Gulf’s estuaries have been dramatically altered over the past hundred years. Restoring the Gulf’s estuaries will benefit wildlife and will boost important elements of the local economy – in particular the fishing and tourism industries.

“We want to see projects that will have the biggest impact on fish and wildlife,” said David Muth, director of the National’s Wildlife Federation’s efforts in the Gulf of Mexico, “because that is the way to insure a healthy future for gulf ecosystems and the communities that depend upon them. Projects that benefit water quality and restore estuarine habitat on the local scale have benefits that resonate gulf-wide. The projects announced this week set the bar high for the other sources of post-oil spill restoration funding.”

An Unprecedented Opportunity

The NFWF funds are only one funding stream for restoration to come out of the BP oil disaster – the Natural Resource Damage Assessment and the RESTORE Act should send additional billions to the Gulf Coast. NWF is working in each state and across the Gulf to ensure that these funds are used to restore important habitats for fish and wildlife while improving quality of life for people who live and recreate near the Gulf Coast.

Projects in this round of NFWF funding do just that. For example, efforts to use science to restore Louisiana’s disappearing wetlands and rebuild its barrier islands, thoughtful planning to restore habitats on the Alabama coast, and a project to restore marshes on the Mississippi coast will all help to lay a framework to ensure the comprehensive restoration of the Gulf of Mexico.

The National Wildlife Federation is focusing on projects that will do the following: protect and restore wetlands and marshes; restore oyster reefs and sea grass beds; restore natural river flows into estuaries and deltas; stabilize and rebuild barrier islands; and promote best management practices for silviculture and agriculture.

Projects like these will help maximize the economic recovery of the Gulf States and in many cases will provide storm protection for coastal communities.

“Public reefs typically would produce anywhere from 3 million to 7 million pounds of oyster meat a year. In 2010 and 2011, production dropped to barely 2 million pounds, then nosedived to just 563,100 pounds in 2012 before rising to 954,950 pounds last year.

The other Gulf States aren’t exempt from the oyster decline either. The cause of their decline is most likely due to a combination of factors cited in the media, such as hurricanes, drought, a booming coastal population, floods, and the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster of 2010.

Mississippi and Alabama have also reported on the decreased oyster population and the boom in their prices at restaurants. Chris Nelson is the vice president of Bon Secour Fisheries Inc. in Alabama, and he recently told the San Antonio Express News that:

“The impact of all these different problems, challenges along the Gulf Coast, have led to an historical low point in the production of oysters.”

The efforts to keep up with demand for oysters poses a potential threat to the resource as well because harvesters may be tempted to take juvenile oysters that still need time to grow and provide important functions in our bays and estuaries.

Regarding the concern over decreasing oyster populations in Texas, Bryan Legare of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department also reported to the San Antonio Express News:

“Drought plus a growing population equals no water entering the bays. The reservoirs aren’t releasing as much water as they need to for environmental concerns.”

A single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day. Photo from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

While the exact cause or causes of the current oyster situation may vary from state to state, the need to restore and protect their presence across the Gulf of Mexico does not. That’s because oysters do essential jobs while calling the Gulf coast home – they filter a tremendous amount of water that flows through our bays and estuaries, and they protect people and infrastructure from storm events by making our shores stronger.

Right now, all five Gulf Coast States are planning how they will spend billions of dollars of Deepwater Horizon oil spill recovery money. This is money allocated to Gulf States from the RESTORE Act, to be spent on restoration of the Gulf’s coastal region and marine environment.

Spending oil spill recovery money on projects and programs that will either restore or enhance Gulf oysters, like projects aimed at protecting our bays and estuaries, will not only benefit the health of the Gulf ecosystem, but will sustain our economy as well.

The National Wildlife Federation is working to restore the Gulf of Mexico for people and wildlife from Florida to Texas, and we need your help to continue our efforts. Please consider making a donation today!

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/08/gulf-coast-oysters-in-peril/feed/0Gulf Coast Wetlands Rapidly Declininghttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/01/gulf-coast-wetlands-rapidly-declining/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/01/gulf-coast-wetlands-rapidly-declining/#commentsWed, 08 Jan 2014 17:58:28 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=90008Read more >]]>The Gulf of Mexico is losing more wetlands than anywhere else in the United States and it is losing them more rapidly than ever before, according to a new federal report that assessed the status of wetlands in the United States.

The Significance of Wetlands

“You lose places for those organisms to breed, feed, rest,” Dahl said. “You’re losing some capability for other environmental functions like filtering pollutants, providing some protection from storm damage.

“You’re losing recreational opportunities for bird-watching and canoeing. You’re affecting hydrology. The areas are no longer able to retain water. The hydrology is changing and we don’t recognize what the full implications are,” he said.

The Gulf’s Wetlands

The Gulf Coast is home to more than half of all saltwater wetlands in the country and the Gulf region also contains nearly 35% of the nation’s freshwater wetlands. Both types of wetlands are disappearing rapidly: there was a 25 percent increase in the rate of coastal wetland loss from the previous five-yearperiod. The losses in the Gulf region were massive—257,150 acres of wetlands disappeared in total. That’s seventy-one percent of the total wetlands lost nation-wide.

The Vanishing Mississippi River Delta

Nowhere in the United States is losing wetlands faster than the Mississippi River Delta, the region where freshwater from the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico. Over the past eighty years, this ecologically important region has lost an area of fresh and saltwater wetlands as large as the state of Delaware. And the delta continues to disappear at an astonishing rate: an average of a football field of land is lost every hour.

Wetland gains and losses in the coastal watersheds of each coastal region between 2004 and 2009. Figure courtesy of NOAA/USFWS.

Many factors have led to the delta’s collapse. One of the most significant is that the lower Mississippi River has been straitjacketed with levees as part of a national program to “control” the Mississippi and protect communities from flooding. But the delta’s wetlands are built and sustained by sediment delivered by the river. A vast network of shipping channels exacerbate the problem by allowing saltwater to penetrate deep into the wetlands, killing the vegetation in freshwater wetlands, and ultimately causing them to subside underwater.

Coastal watersheds of the upper Gulf of Mexico showing the magnitude of saltwater (intertidal) wetland loss to open water, 2004 to 2009. Figure courtesy of NOAA/USFWS.

In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the region. The damage these two hurricanes wrought was made worse by the previous loss of miles of protective wetlands. Much of the wetlands lost during the period in this study can be attributed to these two hurricanes.

Where do we go from here?

This study makes it clear that we need to do all we can to protect and restore wetlands across the country and particularly in the Gulf of Mexico. One year after the study ended, the BP oil disaster further affected the Gulf’s wetlands, particularly in the Mississippi River Delta, but elsewhere as well.

The RESTORE Act, which sends money from BP’s Clean Water Act fines back to the five Gulf States, gives us the opportunity to move the needle on these critical habitats and improve habitats and water quality in the Gulf of Mexico.

Take Action

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/01/gulf-coast-wetlands-rapidly-declining/feed/2How Much Oil Is Still In the Gulf?http://blog.nwf.org/2013/10/how-much-oil-is-still-in-the-gulf/
http://blog.nwf.org/2013/10/how-much-oil-is-still-in-the-gulf/#commentsThu, 03 Oct 2013 22:22:28 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=86165Read more >]]>As the second phase of the civil trial over the Gulf oil disaster continues, we are hearing much discussion over exactly how many barrels of oil were released into the Gulf of Mexico. Legally, this question is critical because it will help determine the amount of money available for restoration. For Gulf wildlife, a related question is equally pressing: how much oil is out there, and what is it doing to the habitats and species of the Gulf?

Burning Oil Slick – Photo Courtesy of US Department of Defense.

Scientists are a long way from being able to answer that question definitively. But several new studies are bringing the big picture of what happened to the oil that remained in the Gulf into focus.

One eyebrow-raising recently-published independent study sampled seafood, sediment, water, fauna and flora collected in 2010. The researchers found that concentrations of petroleum compounds in seafood were up to 3,800 times greater than thresholds considered safe and the authors openly questioned the government’s decision to re-open areas for fishing before the well was capped. Additionally, the study also found high concentrations of oil compounds as far from the well as Galveston and Pensacola.

Dr. Paul W. Sammarco, the lead scientist on the paper from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) in Chauvin, LA, pointed out that, “given the approximately 100-300 million gallons of oil spilled and 1-3 million gallons of Corexit dispersants released, the results from this study are not surprising.”

Dr. Sammarco went on to say that he believes that the “dispersants created a patchy dispersal of oil and dispersant beneath the surface of the water, and that the patches were not readily sampled by government scientists and regulators through ‘point sampling’ which is generally used to sample seawater for nutrients and contaminants.” …

The contrast between these independent scientists’ data and those of the US Dept. of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) while the spill was still active in May 2010, and extending 4 months after the well was capped, warrants a re-examination of the data, testing methodologies, and oil spill monitoring plans, according to the scientists involved.

“Some of the missing oil may have mixed with deep ocean sediments, creating a dirty bathtub effect,” said Dr. Jeff Canton, an oceanographer with Florida State University. “The sediments then fell to the floor at rates 10 times the normal deposition rates. It was, in essence, an underwater blizzard.”

USF researchers have also noted a die-off of the microscopic fauna known as foraminifera that are normally live on the sea floor. Impacts of this magnitude are hypothesized to have lingering effects on other wildlife, particularly on fish.

The diseased fish began turning up a few months after BP was able to shut off the flow of oil in July 2010. The discovery of fish with lesions faded out the following year, said Steve Murawski, a USF fisheries biologist who has overseen a project that examined 7,000 fish caught in the gulf.

Scientists are now looking for more subtle effects in red snapper, such as reductions in the number of large fish and a decline in the total population, Murawski said. They are looking for any genetic mutations, too, he said.

“If they get sick, that’s one thing,” Murawski said. “But if it changed their genes so that they’re less resistant to disease or have lower weights, that’s a big deal. That would be a real game-changer if true.”

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2013/10/how-much-oil-is-still-in-the-gulf/feed/1Restoring the Lower 9th Ward: A Resilient Vision for New Orleanshttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/05/restoring-the-lower-9th-ward-a-resilient-vision-for-new-orleans/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/05/restoring-the-lower-9th-ward-a-resilient-vision-for-new-orleans/#commentsFri, 04 May 2012 18:39:45 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=56184Read more >]]>This post was written by Amanda Moore, NWF’s Coastal Louisiana Organizer in New Orleans.

What would you do if, in one day, you lost everything? I’m not just talking about your personal possessions; I’m talking about your entire community – your church, your grocery store, your school. The folks you meet in the video below, Warrenetta Banks and John Taylor, have lived out this scenario every day since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005 and have chosen to respond with passion and dedication to recovery – advocating for smart, green urban planning on one side of the levee and a healthy wetland ecosystem on the other side of the levee.

Warrenetta and John are both lifelong residents of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. In the years since catastrophic flooding, they’ve helped their community recover to be one of the “greenest” in the nation – solar panels, community gardens, LEED certified homes are typical encounters as you walk down the street. That’s on one side of the levee.

Residents like Warrenetta and John understand all too well that the wetland ecosystem on the other side of the levee is critical to their future and safety. Healthy wetlands serve as a buffer to storm surges and winds and help the levees do their job to protect communities. National Wildlife Federation is one organization working closely with the Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (where Warrenetta and John work) to plan and gain funding for restoration of the 400 acres cypress swamp bordering the community (featured in the video) as well as the entire 58,000 acres wetland ecosystem the swamp is connected to, which once buffered much of the Greater New Orleans area from storms and provided important wildlife habitat.

Without healthy wetlands, coastal communities like the Lower Ninth Ward remain very vulnerable to disasters. Urgent funding is needed for restoration. The RESTORE Act, legislation now making its way through the U.S. Congress, will use a portion of Clean Water Act penalties from the BP disaster to fund projects that will restore Gulf Coast ecosystems, including wetlands that protect communities and provide critical habitat for Gulf wildlife. Right now, you can make a difference in the future of the Gulf Coast. Learn more about the RESTORE Act and share your voice!

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/05/restoring-the-lower-9th-ward-a-resilient-vision-for-new-orleans/feed/0Weekly News Roundup – December 16, 2011http://blog.nwf.org/2011/12/weekly-news-roundup-december-16-2011/
http://blog.nwf.org/2011/12/weekly-news-roundup-december-16-2011/#commentsFri, 16 Dec 2011 19:00:37 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/?p=39112Read more >]]>Want to know what National Wildlife Federation was up to this week? Here is a recap of the week’s NWF news:

December 16 – Congressional leaders announced a budget deal today and are reportedly considering on a two-month extension of a payroll tax break.

“There’s no doubt this bill has come a long way since we started 2011 with the truly appalling House Appropriations Committee budget, reflecting outrage across the country over its attacks on wildlife, air, water and public health, including deep cuts in conservation investments,” Adam Kolton, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s National Advocacy Center.

December 15 – One and a half years after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, BP is officially ending its cleanup operations on the Gulf Coast. Unless officials can prove that newly discovered oil came from the company’s well, they will no longer be responsible for cleaning it up. The plan was approved by the Coast Guard and while cleanup operations are coming to an end, BP has $1 billion set aside for the commencing restoration phase. Biologists and wildlife advocates say the end of the cleanup is an important milestone but the recovery and disaster is far from over.

The City of Orange Beach, Ala. wants to fix Robinson Island — all 0.02 square miles of it.

“I believe in the small, local projects,” said Phillip West, coastal resource manager for the city. “Some folks say it’s a whole lot better to protect big spaces. I get that. But we’re in a largely urban environment. You can’t tell me that pocket wetlands or pockets of habitat spaced throughout [the area] don’t serve a meaningful role. We’re in this neotropical migratory songbird flyway and they don’t want to just land on condo roofs,” he said.

December 14 – Raccoons are among the most adaptable of all animal species, and the National Wildlife Federation’s raccoon mascot, Ranger Rick, is showing his adaptability as he enters the digital world. For over 40 years, Ranger Rick magazine has entertained and educated generations of children about the wonders of nature. Now, NWF is introducing game apps for kids so they can continue to have fun while learning about wildlife and wildlife habitat in a new delivery platform.

“National Wildlife Federation knows kids are into their electronic devices,” said Mary Dalheim, Editorial Director of Children’s Publications for NWF.

December 14 – Groups working on Gulf Coast restoration praised the quick release of a Draft Phase I Early Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment today by the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees.

“The trustees rightly recognize the urgent need for a comprehensive strategy that puts BP’s $1 billion down payment on the Natural Resource Damage Assessment to work quickly restoring Gulf ecosystems and communities that were impacted by the oil disaster,” said a joint statement by Environmental Defense Fund, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy, Ocean Conservancy and Oxfam America.

December 12 – A coalition of groups is appealing a court decision that has allowed a dangerous mine to proceed in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—despite the threat the mine poses to water quality, the Great Lakes and one of the region’s last spawning grounds for the coaster brook trout.

The Huron Mountain Club, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, National Wildlife Federation and Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve filed the motion with the Michigan Court of Appeals today. The groups are opposing the mine on the grounds that it poses unacceptable risks to water and air quality—and that it could collapse, endangering workers and the river it is underneath.

December 12 – Eighty-four percent of Florida voters and 92 percent of Panhandle voters support a bill approved by a Senate committee that would ensure the BP oil spill fines are spent on Gulf restoration, according to a new poll released today at news conferences in Tallahassee and Pensacola. The poll also showed 75 percent of Florida voters and 82 percent of Panhandle voters are more likely to support candidates who back the legislation.